The Academy opens up all 24 categories to the entire voting membership

There's really only one thing to report out of today's big AMPAS conclave: the entire membership of the Academy will now be able to participate in the final vote for all 24 categories at the Oscars. And that wasn't even part of the business at hand, it was something the Board of Governors had decided upon, so they just went ahead and announced it in tandem.

The move was teased last season when screeners of the documentary features and short films were made available so the membership could vote in those categories rather than prove that they saw the nominees at sanctioned screenings. Now they're just adding the foreign language films and documentary shorts to that list, opening up, for the first time ever, the entire field to the entire Academy.

Academy president Hawk Koch noted a "90% record voter turnout" as reason to push ahead with the rule changes, though, again, we're just taking the Academy's word for it that voter turnout was so impressive. And of course, there's nuance in that figure, because it's not like 90% of the entire membership voted. "Koch told me 96% of those who signed up to vote electronically did so, while 87% of those who signed up for paper ballots eventually voted that way," reports Pete Hammond at Deadline. "Those who" voted.

Apparently the decision to hire producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron again was defended, and the ratings boost last year was offered again as support. It's just staggering to me that one could be so blind as to not understand the ratings are about the movies, not the show. At least one member who Hammond talked to gets it.

There was talking of "going green," there was museum discussion, there was electronic voting debate and response to the event was mostly positive. But it honestly just sounds, from the various reports, like members were just glad to be involved in the process rather than leave everything to the Board of Governors.

Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.

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I don't like to curse in comments on online, or anywhere really. Unless you know everyone involved in the discussion, it usually just sounds childish or petty. It makes your argument sound slightly offish, and it makes it harder for others to see your point or where you are coming from. Basically, its a turn off. And thats why I don't curse in casual conversation.

This is not a bright idea, but a bad one. Voting should be limited to the membership in each category. Why did Brave win animation last year, when it was easily the weakest in the field? Why did Sugar Man win in documentary? Year after year the academy picks the most name notable nominee in many of the categories and gives it the victory without probably having seen all the nominees or knowing much about the craft. Why hasn't Roger Deakins won an Oscar yet? The reason is that any random academy member can vote and usually they vote for the Best Picture frontrunners. This is a way to continue to make the Academy more irrelevant, and not to streamline it.

This will change the result for a few future Foreign Language Film winners.Amelie and Pan's Labyrinth would have won under this system and stuff like Departures randomly winning will be a thing of the past. Speaking of, I wonder why they've never bothered to alter that category so that any foreign language film is eligible rather than countries having to pick one movie?

Good idea / bad idea is really too early to tell. It will all depend on whether the voting members will care about watching the docs / shorts / movies, or not. And I frankly find it difficult to believe THAT many members will take the time to watch "at least" 5 movies subtitled (could be more, since foreign documentaries, often end up being nominated).The obvious concern is that they'll end up voting "according to word of mouth".But then again, in my opinion, even other awards should not be voted by the entire membership: frankly, how can an actor, or a costume designer, understand if "the sound editing" or "the sound mixing" of a movie is outstanding "for the right reasons"?

I join everyone who hates this. I too am bias for foreign language films from the continent of Europe but. The Academy enacted rules that made non-European productions competitive for the statuette. The new policy has removed the possibility that non-auteur driven / non-European titles will have their just due.